With new coach, Texans' Hopkins still faces uphill climb in second year

Texans wide receiver DeAndre Hopkins finished his first season ranked second in the NFL in rookie receiving yards with 802 while starting all 16 games.

Texans wide receiver DeAndre Hopkins finished his first season...

Thirteen months ago, DeAndre Hopkins was part of the answer.

He was a big-handed, big-play, first-round draft pick who would put the Texans' up-and-down offense over the top in 2013. Hopkins would learn the truths of NFL life from veteran wide receiver Andre Johnson, finally give quarterback Matt Schaub the back-of-the-end-zone target that had been missing for years and eventually replace his mentor as the team's most-trusted wideout.

Thirteen months later, the 21-year-old Hopkins is somehow one of the last Texans standing on offense. The second-year pro has a new head coach, wide-receivers guru and offensive system to learn. Four revolving quarterbacks have replaced Schaub. And the 11-year-veteran who should be guiding Hopkins through foreign terrain is missing in action, stuck somewhere between an old-school holdout and a new-world contract dispute, while his pupil spends OTAs as the lone Texans wide receiver who caught more than 22 passes last season.

"It's not been easy. I'm not going to lie," the 6-1, 207-pound Hopkins said. "It's a new playbook. You have to refocus. You have to do everything you did your rookie year all over again."

More Information

Short on experience

The Texans have 11 receivers participating in OTAs, but only four have caught passes in the NFL and only former Jacksonville Jaguar Mike Thomas has more than 100.

Ht Wt Exp.* Career rec.

Mike Thomas 5-8 198 6 176

DeAndre Hopkins 6-1 207 2 52

Keshawn Martin 5-11 194 3 32

DeVier Posey 6-1 210 3 21

Lacoltan Bester 6-3 208 R 0

Alan Bonner 5-10 191 2 0

Alec Lemon 6-2 207 2 0

Uzoma Nwachukwu 5-11 198 2 0

Anthony McClung 6-0 177 RFA** 0

Travis Labhart 5-9 182 RFA 0

Kofi Hughes 6-1 208 RFA 0

*-Including 2014. **-Rookie free agent.

To prepare his body and mind for Year Two, a proud but humble receiver who was never content with Year One returned to his roots.

While the Texans became Bill O'Brien's - adding veteran journeyman Ryan Fitzpatrick and rookie Tom Savage at QB; becoming bigger, thicker and stronger - the Clemson product and lifetime South Carolinian temporarily let go of the NFL and headed toward a quiet northwestern corner of his home state.

Then Hopkins found the hills.

Hill work

There isn't one hill. There are hills, stacked around Clemson, aided by levees, tucked between surrounding mountains and the small-town campus.

"You wake up and you see it," Hopkins said.

For two months this offseason, it was Hopkins and his hills.

Former Tigers and current Buffalo Bills players C.J. Spiller and Sammy Watkins sometimes laced up for runs. But it was always Hopkins, sweating out the spring as he raced up, down and around large mounds of earthen dirt that at times reached 100 yards in length.

"It is challenging, but the reward is great," said Larry Greenlee, Clemson assistant director of strength and conditioning, who oversaw the training.

Greenlee helped raise Hopkins, turning close bloodlines into an uncle-like role, while physically pushing the future Texan from little league football to the NFL draft. When Hopkins was first making his name at nearby D.W. Daniel High School in Central, S.C. - known to his coaches as "Superman," with Clemson personnel already hailing him as a local legend - Greenlee used the hills to shave career-defining ticks off the receiver's 40-yard time. When Hopkins was coming off 16 starts, 52 catches, 802 yards and two touchdowns during his rookie NFL season, the duo again returned to the hills as 2014 OTAs and training camp awaited.

"He trains us smart," Hopkins said. "He doesn't try to overdo us. He knows where we need to be and he maintains that weight and that strength."

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For Hopkins' favorite hill, Greenlee set up cones, emphasizing the variety in grades while attempting to maximize the receiver's stride length. The sprint began flat, rose, leveled out, then peaked, all while Hopkins' speed fluctuated from 40 percent of his quickness to an all-out burst.

Another hill, the "gutbuster," tested Hopkins' mental fortitude.

Hopkins' body, in its youth highly athletic but too wiry, raced closer toward the sleek image Greenlee had long envisioned.

"It can be very demanding of the guys," Greenlee said. "When he comes back home … we get him on that hill."

Always wanting more

Stan Hixon isn't dealing with just Hopkins. He currently has 11 wide receivers. Ten, actually, with the frustrated Johnson conspicuously absent.

The Texans coach is still learning faces, preferred patterns and athletic histories. But for a man who first united with O'Brien in 1995 at Georgia Tech, Hixon said Hopkins has stood out during the first stage of a new era.

"I've been around the block," said Hixon, who followed O'Brien from Penn State and had two previous stints in the NFL (Buffalo, Washington). "I've seen what the good players can do and the maturation into what they can become. He has a bright future."

The Texans' NFL-worst 2-14 season in 2013 never felt right to Hopkins. He handled his rookie spotlight well, professionally dealing with everything from the embarrassment of a hacked Instagram account to a brief midseason benching by former coach Gary Kubiak. But despite ranking second in rookie receiving yards and first in starts, Hopkins always wanted more from an inconsistent year that saw him record 47 yards or less in seven contests and catch less than four passes in 11 games.

When Hixon examines the state of his second-year receiver, the veteran coach only sees upside. Athleticism that's years away from peaking. Big, soft hands, a thickening body and a growing mind.

"He's not a 4.3 (in the 40)," Hixon said. "But he's fast enough with his size and height and jumping ability that … he's making those tough catches, those vertical catches, which come from just getting used to the league."

Like his missing mentor, Hopkins also isn't a "goofball."

"He's one of our leaders, even though this is his second year," Hixon said. "We're a young group. He's showing good leadership since we've been in camp."

'Back to the chalkboard'

The rookie who learned an outdated version of the Texans' way in 2013 was asked Wednesday to address Johnson's absence.

Hopkins' response was all him. Simple, with no flash. Unique in its wording.

"I don't want to speak on that," he said. "I'm sorry."

Greenlee is proud Hopkins survived 2013 with his low-key personality still intact. At 21, the receiver is still maturing on and off the field. The family intentionally keeps members around to "stay in his head," ensuring Hopkins remains on the right life path.

"Respect and honor has always been a thing," Greenlee said. "We've never been a bell-and-whistle type family around here. Material things have never been a big thing. … He's a humble kid. He's been through things that have really made him a tough kid mentally, as well."

Greenlee referred to the Clemson hills as routine "athletic maintenance" for Hopkins. Pro athletes are paid to annually improve their bodies. Hall of Famer Walter Payton owned the art of running up and down on dirt three decades ago. It will take Hopkins mastering a new playbook, earning the trust of an unproven collection of quarterbacks and dedicating himself to mentally breaking down his weekly opponents for the receiver to become the annual Pro Bowler he aspires to.

Last season, Hopkins was supposed to be part of the Texans' answer. After Week 2, he believed he could eventually become greater than Johnson. Now, Hopkins has started 2014 without No. 80, while living inside O'Brien's new world. It's Year Two but Year One all over again for the hill-runner.

"I have to go back to the chalkboard and refocus and do everything that you did from your rookie season," Hopkins said. "I'm always going to have confidence, no matter what."